Complaint Review: Discovery Cruise Line - Miami Florida

AND THEY CALLED US A LIAR. SUBMITTED TO BBB OF FLORIDA, THEY REBUTTED THAT IT WAS NOT REPORTED TO CREW. REPORTED TO ASST. WAITER, HEAD WAITER AND HEAD OF DINING ROOM BY US AND NUMEROUS PASSENGERS around us in dining room when served SPOILED, STINKING SHRIMP!!

REVIEW: Discovery Cruises New Years Eve 2006 party cruise discoverycruise.com I am going to use my word processor so that I can recount every horrible, grueling moment of this trip, from the booking and dealing with the confused travel agent to arriving back at port, not at 2:30AM as scheduled, but allowed off this boat they call a ship at 3:10AM.

We recently moved from Dallas, TX to Hollywood, FL and with high hopes for our new lives in Fl and for the New Year, I set out to book a wonderful New Years Eve for myself, my husband, my 63 yo mother visiting from Okla. and my 12 yo daughter. Little did I know. This trip started with not one, but three calls to their reservations number trying to obtain information on this trip, the itinerary, the ship, etc. I was told by the first agent she would have to call me back. I then had filled out an online inquiry and my call was returned 3 days later to tell me the trip was completely booked. Sorry she said. Not 5 mins. later the first agent calls me back and says, No, its not booked. Plenty of room, especially for the later (9:15PM dinner seating) The price was also lowered from $169.99 per person to $144.99 per person (should have been a warning sign right there). I then inquire about a cabin to freshen up and touch up the hair and make-up (after all, it is a room, right?, running water, electricity, etc.? WRONG!), rest for the child and grandma after New Years. The agent goes on to tell us we need to choose between two dinner seatings, 5PM and 6PM and then says we will depart at 7:30PM. I said, you mean we will be dining while we are sitting in port? Then very confusing sounding, she says No, I think that is just the check in time, you eat dinner later.

I ask, Well, when do we eat dinner? She then states that later seating would be 9:15PM. Early seating would be 8:15PM she states. I chose the late seating option with the understanding that our show would start at 8:00PM in the Starlight Lounge. Great I think at this point. So, we are to arrive by 6PM, get our tickets, board the ship, check into our $195.00 Suite (this is all that is left she had advised) but keep in mind, I want to freshen up my make up, hair, etc. Little did we know what was in store for us! Wanting to be punctual and beat the crowds, we arrive at 5PM. There was probably already 100 people in the line, mind you, these people were to be here and ticketed at 5PM for the early seating dinner and they are all still standing in this line, out in the air on hard concrete/asphalt in a parking type area. I join the line, my husband parks the car and my daughter and my mother have to go around the building to find somewhere to sit.

There are no accommodations for the elderly who are taking this trip, nor for the many high heeled women, both young and old. We all got to stand on this cement floor with no direction from anyone at any time. No one from Discovery offered any direction or explanation at ANY time during this whole fiasco. My husband and I stand in this line for well over an hour before it ever even starts to move. Keep in mind, this ship is to be boarded and out to sea at 7:30PM! Hundreds of people are now in line, twisting and turning all around the parking lot waiting to get inside the terminal to get ticketed and board! After all, we have $144.99 tickets and a $200.00 suite waiting for us. Never mind that now we are windblown from standing on this dock area, my hair is now reduced to a straight mop, but I'm going to re-curl it in my $200.00 suite!! Okay, finally at about 6:30PM the line starts to move forward, we don't know what we are doing at this point, there's a line, we got in it and we are following the throng of people filing into this building. We are given a carbon pack embarkation form to fill out. We dutifully do so and with no direction from anyone at Discovery Cruise Lines, we follow the people up to a desk that look like they know where they are going.

We are met with some very disgruntled and unhappy looking cruise line employees who get us checked in and ticketed and all discussing among themselves that this year will be different and that they will get the people boarded and out to sea on time this year (sounds like this isn't a first for this fiasco). They can't tell us our suite number at this point (that's another line!) We take our little packet of tickets and info that we are so proud to finally have. Remember that we have arrived well before our allotted check in time; there are hundreds of people behind us who have been on their feet for a couple of hours now waiting to board. We are then directed to some chairs, there are probably 1/3 of the chairs needed for all these people to be seated comfortably. We locate 4 chairs and have a seat, discussing how we are possibly ever going to get on this ship in time for people to dine at the first seating. We sit here until after 7PM and we suddenly see a rush of people back towards the back left side of the auditorium we are waiting in. Well, we guess they must know where they are going, so we gather our bag, our purses and camera and off we go to be herded down a little skinny hallway between a wall and an escalator. No one has told anyone anything as far as what the procedure is. Many people stood in the boarding line with their embarkation paperwork in hand thinking this was what they needed to board.

The line to get tickets now slowed to a snails pace and still 100's of people in line trying to get their boarding pass/tickets, etc. Tempers are starting to flare as people who thought they were ready to board now had to turn and go to the back of the ticketing line that reached all the way back to the doors where we had originally entered! It was truly heartbreaking and most assuredly angering. By this time our feet are killing us and we are wondering if we are ever going to get onboard this ship! But we are still excited; after all we have a $200.00 suite waiting on us! We've never been on a real cruise, so we really had high hopes at this point. We step foot on the ship and now we finally see employees of the cruise line and they are strategically stationed along the stairwells. They don't utter a word, just motion us like cattle up the stairs! Yes, after being exhausted and standing on concrete for hours, we now have to carry our bag and purses, etc. up 3 flights of stairs! Mind you, we have a 63 yo woman with us, we are 43 and 47 and our 12 yo daughter.

Many, many others were much older and unable to manage such a feat to board this vessel. When we got onboard we are still asking where our suite is. We are told to go to the general information desk onboard. It is now 7:45PM and we are standing in yet another line to pay a $20.00 key deposit and get our room assignment. Keep in mind that we are among the first few hundred to board and this ship was to have left port at 7:30PM and people are still in the terminal in line getting ticketed. This line took approx 20 mins., get the key, assess my now completely swollen ankles and feet and head for the suite. We open the door and there is a nice bucket of iced down champagne and two gift baskets, one with fruit and one with small deserts and 76 degree room temp with no thermostat. This was about the nicest part of this trip and this suite. My hair is now a total mess and I proceed to unpack the make up and my curling iron. I look in the bathroom, not a electrical receptacle to be found. I notice a small sitting, drawer area when we entered the very small room with 1 queen bed, a small chair and a couch. I look all over this room and there is not one plug in for electrical to be found! I can't fix my now flat hair!! I have paid an add'l $200.00 to have a place to rest and freshen up and there isn't one electrical plug in site!

I go back to the information desk and she informs me there is some kind of public locker room place with mirrors and plug ins, etc. and that I am welcome to use it to freshen up. Oh my God! I am about livid at this point. I won't even mention the dirty stained carpet in this room or the pack of Camel cigarettes in the drawer oh I may as well. I was wearing a winter white pants/party suit and had to roll up the legs of it to keep from getting the pants soiled on their soiled carpets in this suite.

We are so late now, it is 8:05PM and we have one brochure that says we are to be at the lounge for our show seating at 8PM and then another ticket that says we are to be there at 8:15PM, so which is it? We get to the lounge at 8:20PM and feel the ship pulling out of the dock. We sit down in the lounge and it must have been 82 degrees in here. We are offered no drinks, no waiter, nothing. My husband goes on a hunt for a drink, ending up I believe 3 complete floors up just to find a bar. Waiters are now bringing in appetizers on trays and handing them out.

The lounge is very small and certainly not big enough for all these people with late dining to get into and it is so hot that we have to leave before the girl has sang even her second song. We travel about the ship trying to find entertainment and a cool spot. The ONLY cool spot on this ship was in the very well air conditioned casino! Imagine that, but we can't go in there because no one under 18 is allowed of course!! We proceed outside on the deck to get some cool fresh air and view the swimming pool. It is just gorgeous with no water in it and a safety net strung over the top of it!! That's a bust, so we drop grandma off at the casino and we go to the front of the ship with our daughter on deck just for something to do that isn't in 82 degree rooms! We mill around the ship til we can't walk anymore and it is at this point that we see many people who have now taken off their suits, long elegant dresses and high heels and put on regular clothes. We decided to join them, back to the "lovely" suite, off came the $200.00 new outfits and we threw on our shorts and flip flops before we ever even ate dinner!! It was that miserably hot, but it gets even better. Don't go anywhere. We travel back towards the dining room for our supposed 9:15PM dinner seating. At 9:30PM when we are all crowded together in another hot steamy waiting area outside the dining room an announcement comes over the PA that the late seating has been delayed for 30 mins. We all file out of this area as the heat is stifling and we proceed to walk around and kill time til 10PM, 45 mins after when we were to have eaten. We proceed back to the dining area a little before 10PM and have to wait til about 10:07PM to start being seated. Finally we are seated in a very beautiful, elegant looking dining room. Jose' our Asst waiter was a very nice young man, waiter in training.

This was a 7 course meal and our appetizer is brought out, a very elegant plate of tiger shrimp, crab, etc. Approx 5 mins into eating, my mother suddenly lurches forward and spits her food out into the plate. I'm think what the h*ll? She says this shrimp is spoiled and I'm thinking, yea right. I pick up the shrimp and smell it and thought I was going to vomit it smelled so spoiled and rancid! We then call the waiter over and his boss and they ask if we want another plate!! H*ll no! Are you crazy?

I demanded that one of them smell it and I thought he was going to get sick when he got a whiff of the spoiled shrimp!! We then hear the next table just raising cane and yelling don't eat the shrimp! Their shrimp was spoiled also! They then call the man over who is the manager of the dining room I guess and all he can say is I'm sorry and walks away. He offers no free drinks, bottle of champagne, nothing. They serve us spoiled shrimp that could have made us sick and offer nothing more than I'm sorry. They weren't the least bit apologetic or showed any concern for the welfare of their passengers still eating this shrimp all around us! We could have all gotten food poisoning on this ship! They didn't even stop the serving of the shrimp and it was the worst smelling spoiled food I had ever witnessed. I couldn't even get the smell off of my hands with lemon juice and water. Needless to say the rest of the dinner didn't go well, as we were so afraid to eat our dinner. We nibbled at it a bit, but definitely could not enjoy it for fear of food poisoning at this point.

Well, I forgot to mention that money was being raised onboard for the Leukemia Association with various raffles. We had bought tickets back at the terminal, 12 of them to be exact and the drawing was to take place at 11:15PM back in the non air conditioned lounge. You had to be present to win!! I had to leave my dinner with two courses left and take all our tickets to the lounge to be present to win. They delayed the raffle results until 11:35PM! Mind you, they have 15 gifts to give away and New Years Eve is at 12 midnight and most of the late dinner seating is still in the dining room risking food poisoning! I sat in the lounge after finding a table for four luckily and held our seats til the family could join me. I sat there for approx 20-25 mins. by myself with waiters all around me and not one would stop to take my order. I was so tired and so hot and so disgusted at this point that I would have probably bit someone's head off if they had spoken to me. The rest of my family shows up and my husband is kind enough to wrap up some desert in a napkin and bring it to me. He is so sweet! At 11:58PM we are still listening to the lady in the middle of the dance floor yelling out raffle winner numbers, no dancing at New Years, nothing romantic at all about all this yelling out of numbers. We start asking where is the champagne we were promised. Finally at about 11:59PM waiters started appearing with small plastic glasses filled with champagne and we snagged a couple just in time to hear Happy New Year 2006! Wow, funs over.

We're hot, so everyone starts clearing out of this sweat box of a lounge! We decide to take the daughter and put her to bed in our wonderful suite with hot air, no television and no electrical outlets! She did bring a charged Nintendo DS, so she was happy! We head to the casino that is very cool temp wise. As the evening goes on and I am winning big at the 5 cent slots, as big as you could probably expect to do with 5 cent slots! HA! Tempers start to flare as machines run out of coins and there is one man to take care of refilling the machines, pay outs, etc. I know because the man behind me was mad that his machine locked up due to no money and he sat there for half an hour waiting on this guy to take care of his machine and they got into a yelling match whereby the employee informs him that he is working on New Years Eve for his and the other passengers convenience and that he is working alone! The machines in the casino started shutting down about 1:45AM because we are to dock at 2:30AM. I hit cash out for 1,600 nickels and it stops with 412 to go! I sat there til 2:10AM waiting on the guy to come and put money in my machine. I now have three buckets of nickels and the line to cash them in is all the way from the cashiers cage to almost the back of the casino. I have had enough of lines and yelling stressed out hot passengers, so I head with my mom to the suite carrying 20 lbs of nickles. It is now 2:30AM and we are or should be docked! We travel down to disembark with hundreds of others and we stood in a hot packed corridor from 2:30AM until 3:05AM holding 3 large jugs of nickles!! It was hot and miserable and tempers started to flare, people were chanting refund, refund and let us out. It was so hot, sweaty and miserable. We then had to travel down flights of stairs and everyone carrying their clothing they had now taken off and changed into cooler clothing due to the heat. Keep in mind, it is winter in Fl and temps of 72 to 73 degrees outside this evening, imagine if it had been 80 + humidity levels!! By far, this is the worst New Years we have ever experienced along with 100's of others who said they were demanding a refund, as I will as well. There are much better ways to spend $800.00 + dollars for New Years! Happy New Years guys and stay far away from this day cruise/New Years nightmare they call Discovery Cruise Lines!!

Dana

Hollywood, Florida
U.S.A.